In one example of the 276-page complaint filed by Smartmatic, Dobbs’ program made a false allegation of Ms. Powell broadcast that Hugo Chávez, the former president of Venezuela, was involved in the creation of the technology of the enterprise and installed software so that voices can be changed unnoticed. (Mr. Chávez, who died in 2013, had nothing to do with Smartmatic.)
Smartmatic also quoted an episode of “Lou Dobbs Tonight” in which Giuliani falsely described the election as “stolen” and claimed that hundreds of thousands of “illegal ballots” had been found. Mr. Dobbs described the election as the end of “a four-and-a-half-year attempt to overthrow the president of the United States”, and raised fears of outside interference.
“It has the feel of a cover-up in certain places, you know – to place the servers abroad, private enterprises,” he said. Dobbs said.
Fox has vowed to fight the lawsuit. “We are proud of our election coverage in 2020 and will vigorously defend this unearned case in court,” the network said in a statement the day before it canceled Dobbs’ performance.
Managers in conservative media argue that the Smartmatic lawsuit raises uncomfortable questions about how news organizations should present public figures: Mrs. Powell was a conspirator, but she was also the president’s attorney. Should a media be allowed to broadcast her claims?
“A new standard has been created from this that is very dangerous for all cable channels,” Christopher Ruddy, the owner of Newsmax and a confidant of Trump, said in an interview on Saturday. “You have to check everything that public figures say, and you can be held accountable for what they say.” Mr. Ruddy argues that Newsmax has presented a fair picture of the claims about election fraud and voting technology ventures.
However, Newsmax staff were made aware of the possible damage resulting from claims that appeared in their performances. In an extraordinary moment on the air, Mike Lindell, the founder of MyPillow and a strong Trump ally, began attacking Dominion – and was immediately cut off by a Newsmax anchor, Bob Sellers, who read a formal statement that Newsmax accepted the election. results “as legal and final”.